Using Agent Chat
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- UpdatedJan 30, 2025
- 9 minutes to read
- Yokohama
- Conversational Interfaces
Agent Chat enables live agents to have conversations with requesters and for managers to help agents and monitor them.
Workspace displays a chat inbox icon that agents use to enter chats. Agents set their status to Available or Away to open or close their inbox for chat requests. The icon displays numbers when chats are waiting to
be answered.
The chat interface is integrated into the workspace so agents can chat while working onscreen with other features provided by the workspace.
Using quick actions in Agent Chat
Use shortcuts, known as quick actions, for common activities that are performed frequently.
- Enter a command after the forward slash (/).
- Select the lightning bolt icon (
) and select a quick action from the menu.
- Select the quick action button on the toolbar (if available).



An agent can view the context relevant to a chat interaction. An agent can use a context quick action to show a card with context variables: sysparm_portal, sysparm_page, table, sys_id, and sysparm_language. The agent can initiate this quick action by entering /context in the message field.
An agent can use Now Assist context menu to generate a response to enter in a chat. The agent initiates this quick action by entering /recommend in the message input field. An error message appears if it takes too long to generate the recommended response or the LLM server isn't available.
Parameters
Some quick actions require a secondary menu so that agents can further control the quick action. For example, after an agent initiates a queue transfer, the agent must select which queue to transfer to. The items that appear on the secondary menu are called parameters.
The following figure shows that, after an agent inserts a quick action to transfer to another queue, the agent sees a list of available queues. The default parameters for the quick actions are queues that are available to agents.
To create a quick action that requires a secondary menu, you must define parameters for the quick action. For more information, see Define a quick action parameter.
Automatically displaying topics with Conversation Autopilot
Agents can use Conversation Autopilot to display Virtual Agent topics during Agent Chat conversations. While the requester interacts with the Virtual Agent topics, agents can multitask and work on other items. Conversation Autopilot is not available for HR Service Delivery (HRSD).
Configuring Autopilot
For information on using quick actions in Agent Chat, see Using quick actions in Agent Chat.
Using Autopilot
The agent is able to use quick actions to search for and invoke an Autopilot topic of their choice during their conversation with a requester. The agent can only select Autopilot topics that are relevant to the channel. For example, only topics optimized for SMS are selectable when conversing with a requester who is using SMS.
While Autopilot is on
While Autopilot is on, the requester can use the rich controls for text but agents see a read-only version of the rich controls rendered to the requester.
When Autopilot is in use, public chat with the requester is disabled, but agents can contact other agents and supervisors for help. If Agent Whisper is on, the Private Chat tab in Agent Whisper functions normally during Autopilot. While Autopilot is in use, the agent's capacity is not freed up and messaging actions configured by customers are disabled.
When Autopilot is ended
Conveying emotions using emojis
Use emojis in Agent Chat conversations to convey emotions to requesters. This helps requesters feel like they're having a conversation with a friend and builds customer brand loyalty.
Before you begin
Emojis must be enabled before agents can use them in Agent Chat. See Setting up Agent Chat for instructions on enabling emojis.
Role required: admin
Procedure
Conversing in a different language with Dynamic Translation for Agent Chat
Use Dynamic Translation for Agent Chat (DTAC) to have a chat conversation with a requester who uses a different language.
Translation indicators
When DTAC is enabled, both the agent and the requester will see a banner at the top of the chat conversation that indicates the conversation is being translated. Bilingual agents can determine if they’re fluent enough in the requester’s language to temporarily turn off DTAC for individual chat sessions as needed.
Dynamic translations control for bilingual agents
When a bilingual agent accepts a chat conversation to which they’re fluent in the requester’s language, DTAC is not necessary. With the Dynamic translations chat session control, agents can turn of DTAC for individual chat sessions.
Agents can select the ellipsis () at the bottom of the chat window then select the Dynamic translations control to the off position.
When DTAC is switched off, a notification displays at the top of the agent’s and the requester's chat windows, highlighting the change in status, for this chat session.
The translation capability is switched off for both the requester and the agent, for this specific chat session. The selection in one chat session does not affect the selection in other chat sessions and the agent can turn DTAC off and back on within one chat session.
Troubleshoot translated messages
Translation services do not understand idioms or jargon and it is possible that some user messages are lost in translation. You can use the translation-indicator icon to view the requester’s original message and look up its meaning as needed.
You can navigate to the individual chat message and select the translation-indicator icon () to see the requester’s original, untranslated message.
Translated chat transcripts
Two chat transcripts are generated at the end of each DTAC chat session. One for the requester to download and save in the requester’s language. The other is the agent’s transcript which contains the text as seen in the agent’s chat window. If an agent used DTAC in part of the chat, the transcript contains both the translated and non-translated text. For more information, see Chat transcript downloads for requesters.
Chat transferred from Virtual Agent
Once you accept a chat from a requester, you can see the chat history between the Virtual Agent and requester in their preferred language for more context.
Attachments within DTAC
When inserting an attachment into a chat, DTAC does not translate the file name or the contents of the attachment.
Sending an agent-initiated message during an async chat
Send a message to a requester even when the requester isn't online while working on issues in Workspace. A long-running conversation between an an agent and a requester who are not online concurrently is called an asynchronous, or async, chat.
Before you begin
Role required: admin
Procedure
On this page
Related Content
- Asynchronous chat
Enable your organization or brand to maintain constant engagement with end users. With Asynchronous Chat, your agents and end users can participate in long-running conversations without being online concurrently. Agents can also proactively contact users whenever there is useful information to share, such as important alerts or updates.
- Configure asynchronous chat for the web channel
Set the chat widget as a messaging channel for asynchronous chat.